Phil Mickelson didn't sit around the house after dropping out of the Farmers Insurance Open late Friday. Instead, he flew to Georgia to visit a back specialist and is hoping to defend his title at the Waste Management Phoenix Open this week.

Mickelson said some of his facet joints had locked up and that specialist Tom Boers restored his mobility, according to the Associated Press. He plans to fly to Phoenix on Wednesday with hopes of playing, but noted that he still has some inflammation that will take a week or two to subside.

Normally, Mickelson said, he'd sit out this week, but as an Arizona State alum he considers Scottsdale a second home and wants to play. He will have a light practice session, he said, and will consider playing if everything feels good.

Mickelson made the cut at Torrey Pines last Friday, but withdrew before the third round because he feared that the muscle pain in his back might encourage him to get into bad habits by altering his swing. After Phoenix, he is scheduled to play the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am next week, but isn't planning to play the Northern Trust Open at Riviera or the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship because his children have spring break at two schools.

If he were to miss these two weeks, that would mean he would have played only 36 holes on the West Coast Swing, where he has won 19 of his 42 events on the PGA Tour.

''I have the entire year. I've got majors coming up. I've got other tournaments coming up and I don't want to get in bad habits,'' Mickelson said last Friday. ''My game is pretty sharp getting ready to start the year and I could tell I'm making terrible swings out there relative to the way I've been swinging.''